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07/16/2001 Archived Entry: "Internet worm purports to be a Microsoft security alert"

Internet worm purports to be a Microsoft security alert | Computerworld News & Features Story

A bogus Microsoft Corp. security alert is apparently being used by crafty hackers to spread the latest version of a computer worm on the Internet.


In an announcement on its Symantec Antivirus Research Center (SARC) Web site, Symantec Corp. said that the W32.Leave.B.Worm is a variant of the W32-Leave.worm identified several weeks ago by the FBI's National Infrastructure Protection Center.


What's new, said Patrick Martin, SARC's development manager, is that this is apparently the first time that a virus or worm has been distributed using a faked Microsoft security bulletin. "It's a sneaky way to get on your system," Martin said. "We've just never seen them use the tactic of a security bulletin as a guise."